


Genderbend Skyward Sword

by AitanaTheFangirl



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Genre: Genderbending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 15:16:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4751090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AitanaTheFangirl/pseuds/AitanaTheFangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xelden (aka Zelda) drags Lina (Link) to the Skyloft Knight Academy to see the results of who gets in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Very Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> My first GB piece I'm posting... don't know what the reactions will be, but meh. I have lots of GB stuff... may or may not post it.

A blond-haired young man walked out into the bright sunlight. He stood on a floating island, high up in the sky.  
He looked around, to the sky as far as he could see. Not seeing what he was looking for, he continued down a beaten path to the Plaza, a landmark on the island, hoping to get a better view.  
He stood on a diving platform, squinting into the sun. Nothing.  
Then his bright blue eyes landed on a tiny red spot in the distance: a large bird with vibrant red plumage, a tiny girl in a cream-colored dress and a red shawl on its back.  
“Lina!!” he called.  
No answer. The wind was too strong, and she was too far away.  
The boy sighed and jumped off the platform, whistling as he plummeted. Another bird, this one blue, gracefully caught him as he fell, allowing the boy to sit with his knees just behind the wing joints.  
Together, they flew to the red bird, no longer as far away as it was before.  
“Lina!” he tried again.  
The girl, who wasn’t even controlling the bird, was quickly pulled from her train of thought, causing her bird to wobble slightly. “Huh?”  
Then she turned, seeing the blond boy on the blue bird flying nearby. “Xelden!” she said, irritated. “I was daydreaming!”  
“Well, my mother decided who was joining the Knight Academy this year. They’re waiting for you!!”  
“Ehhh… Grenla’s better with her bird than me… She’ll just gloat about it anyway.”  
“Just come on!!” the boy, Xelden, said, exasperated. “I didn’t get all the way out here for you to tell me you weren’t coming. I’m dragging you if I have to!”  
“Fine! Fine, I’m coming!” Lina said, her bird close behind Xelden’s as they flew to the Academy.  
Lina didn’t want to see how she did because she was nervous. Unless you looked at her hands, knuckles white as she gripped the belt that served as a collar of sorts for her bird, or the almost panicked look that she almost never had, she would’ve looked cool as a cucumber.  
She didn’t tell anyone how nervous she was, either.  
If Grenla ever found out how nervous she was, Lina would never hear the end of it. But Xelden, she actually trusted.  
“Xelden,” she muttered, so quietly you wouldn’t’ve been able to hear it 2 feet away. “I’m so nervous. I’m literally shaking right now. If Grenla got in, but I didn’t…” she didn’t finish.  
“Relax. You did 20 times better than she did,” Xelden whispered back, equally as quiet.  
As the pair walked in, there was Grenla, looking over, her red hair blazing and wearing that look Lina hated: ½ winning smile for Xelden, ½ smirk for Lina.  
“Just ignore her,” Xelden whispered. Lina turned away.  
“Welcome, potential Skyloft Knights!” Xelden’s mother as well as the Knight Academy headmistress said with a voice that easily filled a room. “This year’s new knights-in-training are as follows: Cawlina, Strina, Grenla,” that smirk again. “and Lina. Welcome to the Academy.”


	2. Fast Forward a few Years...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lina has been in the Academy for a few years, still in a rivalry with Grenla (aka Groose). She has a race to win if she wants to graduate.

“The Wing Ceremony is about to begin! Participating students, please assemble!”  
“Well, this is it. Final test to be a Skyloft Knight. You’ll do great,” Xelden whispered in Lina’s ear.  
Lina nodded and took a deep breath as she went to join the others on a diving platform.  
Final test… Remember you promised to win... no pressure. Lina thought. She prayed silently: Hylan, help me.   
“I have attached to this golden bird,” Instructor Owlenn said, gesturing to the bright yellow Loftwing to her left, “A tiny statuette. I will release this bird to the skies. To win the race, one of you must retrieve the statuette. Whoever does, gets to participate in the post race ritual with Xelden, bringing her one step closer to knighthood. If any of you are caught interfering with the other riders, you will answer directly to me.”  
“That’s double for you, Grenla!” said the headmistress.  
The golden Loftwing lifted into the skies. “On my mark, jump off the platform to call your Loftwing.  
“3… 2… 1… GO!”  
All four girls jumped off the platform simultaneously, calling their birds. The moment Lina took to wing, her eyes were out for the golden Loftwing. She spotted it, and surged forward.  
The statuette was attached to the bird’s ankle, waving in the wind. It was hard to reach for, especially with Grenla and her friends flying so close to it, ready hit Lina if she came too close to one of them.   
Then Lina had an idea: she could fly at it from the side at a dive. Grenla wouldn’t know what hit her!  
Lina put her plan into play. She flew a few meters up, and flew at at angle toward the statuette.  
“Hey!! Don’t you know it’s my day to get all the glory?”  
Grenla’s bird hit Lina’s as her fingertips brushed the statuette. Lina veered off course.  
“You heard her!” called one of Grenla’s friends. “We’ll see how you fly with egg on your face!”  
Eggs? Lina looked to the sky: Cawlina circled overhead, dropping eggs that caused Lina’s bird to shriek and wobble. Lina would have to fly fast to avoid them.  
Lina flew at the statuette again, dodging eggs as she flew. Lina had miscalculated: the statuette was just out of arm’s reach. Grenla’s bird hit hers again.  
It’s okay… Lina thought to her shrieking bird. Just a little longer.   
Lina dove at the statuette again, her fist closing over it just as she flew by. Yes!  
It was smaller than it had looked. It was a tiny Loftwing, looking just like the ones atop the Bird Statues back on Skyloft.  
She soared back to Skyloft on joyful wing, holding the bird statuette aloft. “Xelden! I got it!!”  
Xelden smiled, and jumped off of the platform. He called his bird and he flew by Lina’s side. “Lina! You were AMAZING! Congratulations!”  
Lina grinned, too. “Thanks.”  
“Now we’d best continue with the ceremony!” Xelden said, flying toward the huge statue of Hylan that stood on Skyloft.  
Hanging off the edge of the tall statue, there was a platform, large enough for 6-7 people max to stand comfortably. Lina and Xelden stood on it together, Lina’s heart fluttering with excitement.  
“Lina, I need the statuette you retrieved during the race,” Xelden said.  
Lina nodded and handed him the statuette. Xelden took it and put it into a tiny alcove in the statue. He took out his harp and played the calming melody he had played when he met Lina that morning, offering the statuette to Hylan.  
Xelden then turned back to Lina, holding out his right hand, palm up. Her heart skipped a beat. Lina knelt and put her left hand in his right, her head bowed.  
“Great Hylan,” Xelden said, keeping the ritual going. “Grant us your mercy as I act in your stead during this ceremony.”  
Then Xelden went to speak words he’d memorized from the ancient texts. “Valiant hero, you who grasped victory in the celebration of the bird folk, in accordance with the old ways…”  
Xelden released Lina’s hand. Lina lifted her eyes. The sash Xelden had made was neatly folded and he held it out to Lina. “The blessings of Hylan come aloft a sail, which I now pass on to you.”   
Lina held the sail in her hands. It smelled like Xelden. She stood. He was smiling. “The legends say that Hylan gave the original sailcloth to his Hero long ago. Of course this isn’t the same one, but I worked hard to make it for the ceremony today. I’m really glad I got to give it to you, Lina,” he said.  
“Me too,” Lina said.  
Xelden sighed. “Now I guess we should finish this ritual. You… do know what happens next… right?”  
“Not really…” Lina admitted, running a hand in her short, unruly hair.  
“It’s really not that hard,” Xelden replied. He walked closer to Lina.  
Then he turned her around. “You have to jump off the statue!!”  
“What?” Lina said, panicking slightly.  
“Yup! You see that round design on the courtyard below?” Xelden said, pointing.  
“Yeah.”  
“You have to jump off the statue, and open your sailcloth to land right in the center of it,” Xelden said. “Easy enough, right?”  
Yeah, easy… Lina thought.  
She hesitated, and Xelden noticed. “Off you go!” A good shove to get her off the statue.  
Wind rushed past her face as she fell, pure adrenaline filling her system as she hurtled toward the ground. She angled her dive and opened the sailcloth, falling right in the center of the innermost circle painlessly.  
Xelden followed suit on the back of his loftwing, the ceremony over. “Lina, that was perfect!”  
“Thanks, Xelden,” Lina said.  
“No, Lina. Thank you for coming to participate in the ritual like you promised,” Xelden said.  
“No problem.”  
Xelden hesitated for a moment. “You know, Lina…”  
“Yeah?”  
“With the ceremony being over… And the weather being so nice, not too cold, not overly windy… Do you think… we could… you know… fly around the clouds together?”  
Lina took his hand. “I don’t see why not.”

 

Wind rushed past her face as she flew, Xelden slightly behind and to her left.  
“Hey, Lina!” he called above the wind.  
She turned to face him. “Yeah?”  
“Being in the ceremony with you… I’ll remember it forever. It was amazing.”  
“I loved it, too,” she said, wholeheartedly.  
Xelden’s face darkened a bit, and Lina noticed. “You okay?”  
“Yeah… There’s just something I wanted to tell you about…” he started.  
Then this bright flash came out of nowhere.   
There was this massive black tornado right in front of them, their Loftwings shrieking in terror. “What in the sky is that?” Lina asked.  
“I don’t know…” Xelden called above the wind.  
Red and blue feathers flew everywhere as their Loftwings fought the strong winds that buffeted them. Xelden was pulled toward the storm. The wind became too much. He fell off his bird, and the dark hurricane pulled both the boy and his bird into its core. “Lina!!”  
“Xelden!!!” Lina cried as her bird dove into the tornado, her hand reaching for his. She flew off her bird’s back with a shriek, and blacked out.


	3. The Night That Changed her Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lina learns of her destiny, she meets Faylen (aka Fi) and draws a sword.

She plummeted through space, her face skyward.  
She was dreaming.  
“Lina…”   
A light far away called her name. If she looked, there was a form in the light. A man?  
“I am waiting for you. The time has come for you to awaken. You have a role to play in a great destiny. Lina, awake!”  
The dream shifted.  
Lina was falling again, this time, her face was to the clouds. She was falling after Xelden again. She reached out her hand, and he fell into the mouth of a massive, scaly monster, rows of razor sharp teeth lining the rim of its mouth. Just as the mouth closed…

 

Lina sat bolt upright, back in her bed at the Knight Academy, breathing heavily.  
“Ah, you’re awake.”  
The headmistress sat on a chair to Lina’s left. “What happened?” Lina asked.  
“Your Loftwing carried you back, limp and unconscious. I feared the worst. But where is Xelden? Wasn’t he with you?”  
Lina sat up cross legged on the bed and explained everything. The black storm, and Xelden falling through the clouds. “I don’t even know what happened to him,” Lina said.  
The headmistress’s face darkened. “Well, as long as he has his Loftwing, he’ll be fine,” she said, but it didn’t seem like she believed her own words.  
“I need to go look for him…” Lina said, standing. Her world slid to her left.  
“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard…” said the headmistress. Lina sat down again. “Tell me, Lina… did anything about Xelden seem… off?”  
Lina thought for a minute. While her Loftwing was missing, before the Wing Ceremony, she and Xelden had gone looking for it. After they freed the bird from her pen, Xelden had said something about a whole world below the cloud barrier under the sky, far bigger than Skyloft, despite everyone saying that the world below was a barren place, or that there was nothing at all down below.  
“And I feel I should tell you… I’ve been having these dreams of a great mission. I don’t know anything about it,” Lina continued.  
“The surface… dreams of a great mission…” the headmistress said. “I’m sorry, Lina… Just thinking aloud. I doubt that these things have much of a connection. In the meantime, Loftwings have terrible night vision, and it would be near impossible to spot a boy and his bird in the dead of night.”  
Lina looked outside her window. Sure enough, the moon cast a silvery glow on Skyloft.  
“I recommend you sleep the remainder of the night, wait until morning,” the headmistress said, leaving the room.  
Lina was alone with her thoughts. Would Xelden ever come back? It was usually that once something fell below the clouds, it was gone for good. Nobody ever went down there and came back to tell the tale. Where was Xelden now?   
“Lina… Lina…”  
Someone… or something was calling Lina’s name just outside her door. The same voice from her dreams.  
She stood up again, and her world didn’t topple to the side. What was really outside her door?  
She walked out into the corridor, and to her right, near the stairway, was the guy from her recent dream. He floated ½ foot over the ground. His appearance was alien: His head, face, and hair were sky blue, and he wore a deep purple tunic. Instead of arms, he had strange fluttery wings, his right matched his tunic, his left matched his head. His eyes were blank. Lina followed him up the stairs, and out of the Academy.  
The night air was cool and fresh, waking up Lina from the inside out. She proceeded to follow the guy from her dream. He took her to the statue of Hylan Xelden and Lina had stood on the day before. He fell through the stone and disappeared, leaving a doorway behind. Lina walked through and into the statue.

 

Lina had lived on Skyloft her whole life, but she’d never seen this room before. The walls were of a strange, yellow stone. In the back of the room was a stand where Hylan’s crest floated in midair, which Lina had no clue was possible. In the center of the round room was a pedestal, in which stood a glowing sword with a turquoise handle and turquoise engravings down its blade.  
The being from her dream popped out of the sword, coming to float in front of Lina.  
“Lina,” he said. “As part of your social customs, I will provide you with my personal designation. Faylen is the name I was given.”   
Okay…   
“As the one chosen by my creator, you are chosen to play a part in a great mission.”  
He turned to the side. “As part of this great destiny, you are fated to draw the the sword you see in front of you.”  
Lina hesitated. She never expected this.  
“The dreams troubling your sleep, my sudden appearance, uncertainty surrounding the fate of one you hold dear… it is only logical that you would exhibit some apprehension.”  
Wait… he knew about Xelden?  
“The one you call Xelden is still alive.”  
Lina could barely believe what she was hearing. Her heart skipped a beat. “Really?”  
Faylen nodded. “Yes. And Xelden, child of spirits, is meant to play a part in the same great mission as you. So I recommend drawing this sword before you go to search for him.”  
“Alright, then,” Lina decided, coming forward to take the sword.  
“Then in the name of my creator, Hylan, draw the sword and raise it skyward,” Faylen instructed.  
Lina wrapped her fingers around the hilt. It was startlingly warm. She gently pulled it out, and a shaft of light appeared overhead. She raised the sword skyward. The blade slowly lit up.   
A flood of emotion came from the sword: belonging, loyalty, trust.  
“Recognition complete… Mistress,” Faylen said, clearly rolling the idea over. So Faylen was the sword… cool.  
“Lina!”  
Oh great…   
The headmistress walked into the room, seeing Lina with the sword. “Headmistress…” Lina said, startled. “I can explain…”  
“No, Lina. There is no need,” The headmistress replied. “Until now, I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t sure.”  
“About what?” Lina asked.  
“This room. The very knowledge of its existence is given to very few in each generation on Skyloft, along with a handful of words. Yet, here we are in the Chamber of the Sword, where it was foretold that the youth of legend would someday appear. ‘When Hylan’s Sword shines bright, then will the youth of legend appear in a place most sacred. Then will the apocalypse awake from its long slumber.’   
“It started days ago. The sword began to give off a faint, otherworldly light. I thought I was seeing things, here alone with the sword. There was no other option. I never dreamed that the prophecy would come to pass in my lifetime.”  
“The Oral Tradition…” Faylen said. “One of the least reliable methods of memory retention and transmission. It seems as though critical segments of the passage has been lost over the generations.”  
Faylen continued to quote: “And she shall be guided by one born of the blade, one who is youthful in likeness, yet wise with knowledge immeasurable. With the spirit of the blade at her side, she shall pierce the clouds and plummet below, bringing a light that resurrects the land.”  
“I’ll do it,” Lina decided.  
“Lina, this is no ordinary task. To reach the surface, you must go through the cloud barrier to the land below. In living memory, no one has ever done this,” the headmistress said.  
A stone tablet with a green stone set in it materialized in front of Faylen. He gave it to Lina. “This tablet will illuminate a pillar of light that will create a portal through the clouds at its base, permitting you access to the surface. To use it, use the energy stored in your sword when you raise it skyward on the crest behind me. It will open up an altar in which you can place the stone tablet.”  
Lina did so, and though she didn’t see it, she could tell that something happened when she put the tablet in the altar.  
“It is done,” Faylen said. “Mistress Lina, I recommend making preparations for your journey to the surface. I will accompany you as your guide,” he retreated back into Lina’s sword.  
“I think we have defied all expectations tonight…” The headmistress said.  
“Yeah…” Lina said, breathless. “Apparently Xelden’s alive… no doubt learning about his own part to play in all this… I feel like so much hinges on me…”   
“I know,” the headmistress said. “But that’s fate, for you. we can’t do anything about it.”  
She looked outside. “Dawn is approaching. We should return to the academy. You have a big journey ahead of you, and your clothes don’t look up to the task. But the uniform you were to receive after the Wing Ceremony should be ready for you.”  
“Alright. I’ll bring Xelden back,” Lina said. “I promise.”


End file.
